Some Wading River residents are asking the Riverhead Board of Education to intervene to alleviate what they say is an unsafely overcrowded bus transporting students to Pulaski
Street School and Riverhead Middle School.
Doreen Moore and Allyson Mattwey have children who ride bus number 120 and are picked up at the corner of Hulse Avenue and 17th Street in Wading River — the next-to-last stop on the route. Children picked up at the last two stops regularly have trouble getting a seat on the bus, both moms told board members at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The bus has a rated capacity of 66 children and 44 adults. It is scheduled to carry 62 students to and from Pulaski and RMS, according to Moore and Mattwey. The problem, the parents say, is that many of children in grades 6, 7 and 8 are as big as adults. The older kids don’t fit three to a seat. To make matters worse, they say, the kids are carrying athletic equipment and musical instruments — in addition to bulky backpacks and lunchbags.
Wednesday morning, 11 children boarded the bus at the Hulse Avenue and 17th Street stop at 7:41 a.m. The bus was crowded, driver Arlene Chastaine agreed.
“But it’s less than the 66 allowed,” the driver said.
Sixteen minutes later, Moore’s daughter Katie, a 7th grader, texted to say she was riding to school seated on the floor in the aisle of the bus — on top of her backpack — because she couldn’t get a seat.
“We understand the need for consolidation of routes and schools to save money,” Moore said. “But there are too many kids on this bus.”
Mattwey said she is exasperated because during the last school year she complained to the district transportation director, the assistant superintendent for finance and operations and the superintendent herself.
“They never got back to me,” she said. “I felt like I was just put off.”
So the parents took their complaints to the school board Tuesday night.
School Superintendent Nancy Carney said the district did investigate claims of overcrowding last year “and it continues to do so,” Carney said in an email this morning.
“We have had administrators and others ride this bus observing the route and the seating situation, and a full report will be given to the board at the September 23 meeting as part of an overall report on bus capacity,” Carney said.
Carney said there were 25 Pulaski students and 25 middle school students on Bus 120 this morning.
“There was ample room for everyone, including an adult who rode as an observer,” she said.
“There were some students who were unwilling to share their seats with anyone else, despite the insistence of the bus driver,” the superintendent noted. “This will be addressed.”
The district’s “drivers are trained professionals who know that unless all students are seated, the bus is not to move,” she said.
“There is no doubt that some of our buses, including Bus 120, are crowded, but the capacity for the large buses is 66 students (with three to a seat) and while some of the students are adult-sized, many can comfortably sit with two others,” Carney said.
“If the district were to schedule 44 students per bus as the allowable number (two per seat) the district will need to purchase many more large buses and hire many more drivers. This may be discussed after the presentation on September 23.”
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